You are here

Announcements

All Kickstarter Backers: Please go to your Kickstarter account and update your emails.
We're trying to give you as much time as possible for the staged rollout of pre-Alpha.
Make sure you can log in, and make sure your email address is up to date.
Please make sure *@missingworldsmedia.com is set to Allowed or Not Junk in your email settings.

What this document is:
This is a compilation of available information on City of Titans. There is a lot of information out there found throughout many different Kickstarter updates, forum threads, Twitch streams and so on. Visitors may find it difficult to find the particular information they are interested in, and even those who have spent significant time on the forums will miss certain things. As a result, the same questions often come up several times because people don’t know where to find the answer. It is my hope that this will serve to assist you in learning what you want to know about City of Titans.

This document has two major parts. The first half deals with the game’s development and aspects of its mechanical design, such as character creation. The second half deals with lore known from various sources. This can largely be considered free of spoilers for the game as that was the intention behind the KS updates and other sources, but some readers may prefer to avoid it all the same. Everything here includes a citation from a developer source. If you do not see a link for a particular entry, it comes from the same source as that entry’s heading.

What this document is not:
This is not guaranteed to represent the actual release of City of Titans. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that errors inevitably occur when synthesizing hundreds of sources. Many sources date back to the earliest public statements about the game. When posting about the game, developers routinely preface their statements by explaining their comments represent their best knowledge of the development intent at the time. By checking the age of each source you may get a sense of the likelihood that the content has since changed. Whenever possible I have tried to use the most up-to-date information. When it comes to lore, as ConundrumofFurballs reminds us, much of the available information has been presented from the point of view of “Joe Citizen.” This means that in some cases there is intentional misdirection, but also that I had to read between the lines on occasion, so the summary may not be accurate.

I have done my best to include useful information without making this too dense to find what you want, so I used judgment in what to include and what to leave out. If you are interested in learning more about any particular topic, most of the links will lead to further detail.

Where this document is going:
When I originally researched and wrote this document, it was as a member of the community very interested in the development of the game, but without any official sanction. I have since joined the Public Relations department of Missing Worlds Media as a Community Manager. At this time, this text should still be considered unofficial, but this may change. We have some ideas to evolve it over time, revising and updating based on internal input.

With each major update, content changes will be marked as follows: UPDATE. Editing for clarity, grammar, spelling and so on will not be marked. If you find an error, broken/misdirected link or out-of-date information in the document, or find something elsewhere you think should be included, please post it here or message me directly and I will revise accordingly. Whenever possible, please include a link to your source.

This is currently Version 4, posted on Jan 17, 2018. Included is some new information on masteries, interaction between player characters and non-player characters, landmarks from the last Kickstarter update, and a few other things. I have checked all links to Twitch streams and everything currently in the Compilation should work.

You can also find more information and links to social media platforms by looking at the blue header and black footer on the forums, including trackers for developer threads and comments on the forums.

I hope the community finds this a valuable resource. Thank you for checking it out!

From Kickstarter: “Missing Worlds Media presents City of Titans, the superhero MMORPG being developed by The Phoenix Project in the spirit of City of Heroes. Our goal is to deliver a unique massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, created from the community of a lost universe, to build a new community for a new world.“

“One of the fundamental understandings of designing this MMO is that there are multiple ‘games’ players play within the game. […] We want to make a game where all those types of play or games within the game are all availabile.”

The Kickstarter in 2013 raised $678,189 from 5003 backers compared to a $320,000 goal. The following stretch goals were reached:

Release is planned for fall 2018. “This is the point we are confident that there would be no more need for character database wipes, that balancing would be ready, and the game is in a playable, even if not yet bug-free, state.”

Game will have an up-front cost which provides access to all content, systems and features and also includes 3 months of VIP status. Afterwards the game will be free to play with a cash shop. An optional subscription provides credit in the cash shop at a higher value and earlier access to material than free-to-play players.

Currency is nicknamed Stars.

There will be loyalty tokens for those who stay subscribed.

In-game store items can be unlocked for a single character through gameplay.

Each time a character reaches maximum level, you unlock a character slot.

There will be no lockboxes. Bundles of related unlocks can be bought and will include random extra pieces from somewhere else in the game.

“Everything we are introducing in game can be colored or textured as we choose, independent of their shape or design.”

“Cassandra”–a piece of technology developed by MWM, designed to draw a character with a single draw call. This minimizes the workload for the video card, allowing more characters to be onscreen.

“Part of the design is to create player activity hubs where selling, crafting, and other things occur to provide that common place people can meet up. Of course, even better is when players naturally congregate at a location of their own choosing. There is a bit that goes into the map design by the devs which can encourage such locales, but it is the players that really make it work out.”

“A new character creator made in today's cutting edge tech has so many possibilities that the old game couldn't match. We're going to try to bring in as much of it as we can. That, to us […] is in the spirit of City of Heroes.”

Characters are created within game accounts, and have names that must be unique within just that game account.

Aesthetic Decoupling. Mechanics and animations of powers are independent systems. Visuals are part of your costume. These choices will not affect the mechanics in any way. “Aesthetic decoupling lets you apply virtually any aesthetic to any set. You choose your props (or none), emanation points, animations, particle effects.” While aesthetics were originally intended to be applied only to certain sets (e.g. fire, radiation, stinging sand etc. would apply to burning sets) this is no longer the case. More early information here.

You can choose props (e.g. a weapon), opening up the appropriate animations. If you use a prop, the intent is for you to be able to select a place on your body for it to be, and for it to disappear from that place when in use.

Costumes: Unreal 4 makes it possible “to create more believable materials that will react to the light and environments in the game.” They will have a variety of materials and textures as well as patterns. More examples here, here and here.

“We have a pile of idle stances, but wiring them up will be a late stage development.”

On sliders, sex etc. for character models: “For the record much of the range allowed by the creator is because the staff will need it for production purposes (monsters and the like). Reasonable limits will be imposed as we discover what they are (defining ‘reasonable’ is an obvious first step there). Presets to help people out will be provided. Mechanisms to help with scaling will be provided. You will be able, as time goes on, to resize your character if needed. In fact a complete overhaul ability is envisioned right down to gender as well as having the ability to create alternate versions.”

There will be facial emotes. Examples of facial emotes as works in progress can be seen here.

On handling effects from character models that are unpleasant to the player: “Our basic approach/assumption is ‘if it makes your eyes bleed, you should be able to tell the game to stop doing that to you.’”

The level cap will initially be 30 and will increase to 50 at some time after launch.

Archetypes. Characters choose an Archetype and Specification, which determines the Basic Playstyle (also see Powers and Power Sets below) of the Primary and Secondary sets from which they select powers, respectively. The following Archetypes and Specifications are planned: (Those marked * are not expected for launch. You can see the most recent posting of the archetype chart here.)

Sets with other Basic Playstyles will be developed in the future: Assault (ranged and melee), Manipulation (control and support), Pets.

Characters may also select powers from Tertiary sets (accessing up to 5 sets). These are more basic, truncated versions of Secondary sets, or something unique such as Super Senses (which is not planned for launch). All Archetypes have access to all Tertiaries (though this may change.) There are balance concerns with basing Tertiaries on Pet or Control sets, though it has been said control-heavy Tertiaries will be formed from Manipulation sets.

Masteries. A means of further defining your character by selecting inherent abilities. There are 5 designed per Archetype, with 3 intended for launch. Characters get a total of 3 Mastery Slots by level 50. Each Mastery has 3 tiers; you can take all 3 from a Mastery or mix and match. UPDATE Masteries are penciled in for selection at levels 5, 15 and 25.

Stalwart Masteries:

Living Target: You are best at drawing your enemy's attention away from allies.

Supremacy: Attacks enable you to build up to unlocking your full potential.

Augments and Refinements. Analogous to enhancements in City of Heroes. Powers receive Augment Slots, potentially increasing up to 4 as you level. Augments improve the effect of the power (e.g. damage). When you slot an Augment, it also opens a varying number of Refinement slots, which affect how the power is delivered (e.g. accuracy).

Augments/Refinements reduce in power as you level. “The decline will be sharper at first, and then gradually level off, at least that’s the current thought.”

Power Set Augments are a special kind of Augment Slot that can be applied to an entire power set. As an example, it can change a portion of its damage to another type. Power Set Augments in Tertiary power sets can give you “weird things” such as a static bonus to regen. Your Primary and Secondary power set each receive a Power Set Augment Socket. Tertiary sets instead carry Global Augment Sockets, the Augments for which apply a bonus to the entire character.

“Alignment is what people think you do, in public. It is, in some ways, your reputation with the world as a whole - while factions are about people getting to know the inner you a little better. Alignments change based on what people see you do - that's because they affect how people react to your character. If a cop sees you kicking the head in of a surrendered crook, you're going to see changes to how people react - your Violent rating goes up.” There is some further explanation here. “It’s the truest to comics that we could make it.”

“Hero and Villain are labels players use. They are descriptive – not prescriptive and do not drive game play. The alignment system is based on a tri-axis of Law, Honor, and Violence. You can have a lawful, honorable, violent hero or a lawful, honorable, violent villain. Players do not read alignments of other players. It is up to you - the player to decide the reasoning for how and why your character behaves, and how and why other characters are behaving the way they do.” “As such, [the alignment system] isn't used to enforce a player-faction segregation system.”

Build slots and respecs.

“At certain points in your character's progression, you will earn separate build slots. These build slots must be the same Primary, but can use a different Secondary Set, Mastery Powers, and Tertiary Powers. There will be a limit on how quickly you can swap builds.” Characters end up with 2 optional alternate builds.

“Look at what you’re keeping. Your primary. Your job […] –and it looks like we’ll have a variant of each secondary power set for each Specialization—so you’re keeping that too.”

Respecs appear to have the same options: you may not change your primary, but can change secondary, augment slots etc.

The team size will generally be 8, though some missions may allow for more.

Momentum. Another statistic bar like Health and Power. Starts at 0 and builds up when you engage in combat.

Momentum bleed-off turns into Reserves (similar to inspirations in City of Heroes, though the intent is for the player to have more control over what they get.) Archetype does not directly affect your Reserves, but because your Archetype affects how good you are at different tasks, different Reserves might be more effective for you because the way they affect you is different.

There are several minutes of explanation on Momentum here. UPDATE There is also further discussion in this thread, with confirmation of some details (such as the natural depletion rate of Momentum being fixed) and some possible interactions between Reserves and defeat.

All crowd control effects are non-binary and all stackable effects undergo some form of diminishing returns.

The duration of control effects is shorter relative to City of Heroes. However they have a variance of duration depending on the target’s rank. They will always have some effect and if stacked could completely control the target.

Several gameplay mechanics have been named and described:

Protections, in order of effect, are: Evasion, Defense, Subtraction, Resistance, Healing/Regeneration. Evasion is avoiding attacks by style (melee, ranged, aoe) and works against Accuracy, while Defense lowers the impact range of an effect after a hit occurs. Subtraction reduces damage by a fixed amount against type. Resistance reduces an effect by a percentage against the type. (See here and here.)

Recoil is damage dealt to the attacker when it successfully hits the target with a recoil effect on it. Reflection is a portion of damage dealt that is resisted and sent back automatically to the attacker (melee or ranged). Deflection is a portion of damage dealt that is defended and sent back to possibly hit any selected target within range (melee for melee attack, range for ranged attacks).

Some powers can be passively charged, meaning their effect increases if you do not move or get hit during the activation cycle. Examples: Reaper’s Edge from Vampiric Blast and Focused Blast from Force Blast (Ranged powers.)

Output, Function, Lens. These mechanics have been mentioned but there is not much information on them. This quote is presumably with regards to the same Lens: “The level-lens is a system we use to adjust for level differences between an attacker and a target.”

There is a system for Challenges and Achievements. “Challenges are ways the character is played or things the character can do. As the Challenge difficulty increases, the greater the potential reward becomes for obtaning the related Achievement. Failing a Challenge resets the Achievement level even if a Badge has been previously earned for that Achievement.”

“They do not directly provide additional drops, but provide a method for obtaining additional reward bonuses.”

Further examples of Challenges include stealthing a map, defeating all spawns, uncovering the entire map, etc. There will be a scaling factor for team size. This also provides players a means to set up how they want to be rewarded: weighted toward per spawn or per achievement.

The existence of Badges has been confirmed by them being offered in the Kickstarter (in addition to being mentioned alongside Challenges and Achievements as noted above and other topics.) In particular, there are exploration badges and a Kickstarter badge.

Respawning is expected to follow a model similar to City of Heroes, akin to resurrection inspirations and hosping. “Right now, we don’t have a defeat penalty. Time lost from combat is viewed as the main form of a penalty. One of the considerations is resetting certain challenge ratings in our Achievements and Challenges system. Part of that is being defeated results in lost bonuses for completing content.”

“Arenas don’t exist like in CoH. Arenas will exist for other forms of non-combat pvp.”

“PvP wins provides a Win Streak Notoriety. If someone is running around with a high Win Streak Notoriety - they become a juicy target for others with lower notoriety. Losing makes you lose your Win Streak. Each new ‘level’ of notoriety is an Achievement. In order to gain your ‘xp’, you want to engage against players of similar or higher notoriety than you. Defeating lower notoriety players won't help you earn your achivement but will rack up your Win Streak. Making you a target.” Additional posts on this: 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

There will be PvP currency which can be exchanged to purchase PvE rewards.

The user interface will include a combination of symbols and colours to display information, such as a red fist symbol with a number indicating physical damage, a yellow electrical spark with a number indicating electrical.

UPDATEIn-game communication is being built using a system called the Advanced Social System, with added capability for Association lists such as friends, raid partners, supergroups etc.

Enemy types that have been mentioned: swarmling, critter, mob, experienced, boss, named boss, epic boss, monster boss, EPIC MONSTER BOSS. There is a system to semi-randomize minions as they are spawned.

Music is being developed for the game by Hellwreckage. You can find Hellwreckage’s YouTube channel here. There are also examples of the music available here, here and here. Note also that many of the Twitch streams use City of Titans music as introduction and background.

Terminology: An Episode is a mission. A Series is a string of Episodes telling a connected story. A Saga is multiple, successive arcs with recurring plot elements.

Tips: short, self-contained, one-off adventures. “While Tips aren’t designed to require any special knowledge of the game’s lore, lore-focused players will still find them interesting.” Tips will be repeatable.

Paths: game-spanning Sagas with elaborate stories that let you explore and define your character while meeting and battling a variety of highly detailed NPCs. Paths are personal stories that you can go through, such as Street Hero, Ganglord or Adventurer. “We don’t have one big mega-plot. Instead we have story arcs […] that go from 0 all the way to 50. And you can flip between them as you progress.” There will be four paths available at launch: Hero North, Villain North, Hero South, Villain South.

District Stories: Series that focus on the lore related to a particular part of the city and usually featuring prominent NPCs, special gameplay mechanics, or both.

There are plans for a journal system which tracks what players have done. It is not yet determined if it will be included at launch.

Many missions will be in instances. Instances should each have a distinctive feel and may have multiple entrances. There is an explanation/example of multiple entrances here.

Maps may be procedurally generated to have an element of randomness. They should have a realistic, practical layout, and may include environmental effects and dynamic elements.

Missions are run off a spreadsheet. Designed to make mission writing easier and as preparation for a future player-facing mission writer tool. There were four goals for the mission creation system:

Flexible. No separate systems for different kinds of missions.

Able to import data from an external tool.

Same core system for both developer-created and player-created missions.

Can be used for both open world and instanced content.

The map builder system is also being designed so that it can later be used by players to create content.

There are ideas for missions that do not match the City of Heroes groups-of-enemies-followed-by-boss style, such as a single enemy, having to save/destroy evidence, or being escorted by a powerful NPC.

The tutorial mission: Set in TitanFirst bank in the aftermath of a heist. Witnesses describe the event, giving players an opportunity to describe their character’s appearance, powers, role and choices in the heist (alignment). The tutorial will also teach you how to use reserves and enhancements. You finally select your travel power by determining how you exit the bank. At the end a newspaper headline will describe what happened.

UPDATE There is some information on player-character/non-player-character interaction. In particular, dialogue will not tell you how your character feels. Also, the dialogue options will include a general idea of what your character says rather than a word-for-word quotation. This post also includes an example of such interaction.

There is a Lore Bible. As of Sept 2014, a document approximately 5 novels in length. There are some rough numbers available on the number of characters in the Lore Bible that will appear in game.

A note on CapeChaser pages. “They are written by the public, and therefore only contain information that would be known by Joe Civilian. […] The remainder of the information is meant to be learned through gameplay.” (CapeChaser pages can be found under the Guides tab of the forums, detailing various inhabitants of Titan City.)

1985: Operation Anvil. A joint effort among local police, FBI and local heroes. The organizer, D.A. Yousef Amir, was assassinated. In the years following, corruption spread through public office and the superpowered community turned inward.

1998: Hurricane Atlas. A natural event, but exacerbated by the villain Cumulus Rex. A group of heroes known as the “Atlas 33” held the line against Rex.

2002: The Fallen Firefighters’ Memorial is rebuilt after the original is damaged in Hurricane Atlas.

The Black Rose. Inspired by the classic Italian organized crime syndicates of the 1950s.

Citizens’ Alliance for Protection. “A group of private citizens fighting crime through a combination of community support, patrols, and the application of nonlethal weaponry to criminals’ skulls or other parts.” Members include Jarhead and Enech. An example of a CAP encounter appears here.

Dinosaurs. There is a reference to a race of dinosaurs, including one who drives a cab.

The Five Dragons. A powerful organized crime group, known for their Far Eastern flair and reliance on magic. Founded by Jerry Chiang, who was gunned down at the Opal Room in the ‘90s. Strongest presence in Lotus Hills.

IFRIT. International Fire Response/Ignition Team. A group of mercenaries. Also referred to as the Pyromaniacs.

The Unforgiven. “A powerful and enigmatic street gang wielding the dreaded supernatural power of the bizarre and eerie curses.” An example of an encounter with the Unforgiven appears here. There is also a comment about how they will appear in game: “We do want to try to have these specific guys be the ‘how procedural can we get’ testbed.”

Vril. A hidden band left over from World War II, destroyed by the Nazis. (A note on their origin.)

Significant characters in the Tales of the Titan City Police Department/Tales from the Underworld update arc

A series of Kickstarter updates told a story set in Titan City that revealed many characters, locations and factions. The list below includes characters that played a significant role in that arc. (For reference, links to each part of the arc are also included.)

“Many of the characters portrayed in the Tales of the TCPD and Tales from the Underworld update series will be present in the game itself. I will not say which, or how many, but the stories don't end just because the game is launched...” It has been confirmed Kathleen Aurelia will be a Tips contact for heroes in Alexandria and Frank Castilucci will be a Tips contact for villains in the south side.

The world map is 16 miles on a side. The team has developed a “Builder” tool to automate segments of worldbuilding. The map itself consists of data taken from various real-world locations used in conjunction. Some further discussion on the technical process appears here.

There are 13 districts slated for launch. As of June 2014, there were a total of 40 districts “mapped out.” They will average 5 distinct neighborhoods, each with its own feel, purpose and threats. There are sufficient districts on each side of the peninsula for a character to level from 1 to 50.

Downtown. A “vertical city” as Skywalks connect some buildings. Significant airship traffic, including Aether Pirates. Home to the Liberty Building—Titan City’s tallest skyscraper—and other landmarks such as the Orbit Room.

Old Bradford. “This area is home for the rich, the snobby, and the strange.”

Northeastern Research District. “An optimistic hub of science and technology.” Also called the “Birthplace of Tomorrow.”

I've joined the team about nearly a year ago. Over the course of that year, it was very cool to see how we implemented some of these years old ideas into practice. Even though some are mockups, the end goal we're reaching is precisely similar.

Thanks all. Had some time on my hands, thought this would be useful, and gave myself a project.

ConundrumofFurballs wrote:

*spots a few inaccuracies in the lore provided*
exxxcellent....

Curses! :) By inaccuracies, you mean there were some clever red herrings along the way, or I just fouled up (which was bound to happen in here, as I went through a lot of stuff)?

Lin Chiao Feng wrote:

Minor correction to the Second Chance section:
Quote:
Goal to raise funds to hire volunteers as full-time staff.
should read:
Quote:
Goal to raise funds to hire additional developers and/or hire volunteers as full-time staff.
There might be a better way to phrase that, but the point is that there are more options on the table beyond just converting current volunteer staff to paid positions.
Also, I know we haven't been careful, but we probably shouldn't refer to the Second Chance using the term "kickstarter" because we're not getting Kickstarter to run it.

Updated the goals as you suggested, and changed the entry to read 'fundraiser' instead of 'kickstarter.'

Edit: Also, it appears I've been anointed both the owner of Amerikatt and a minion of Amerikatt...and in my experience owning a cat and being its minion is the same thing, so that makes sense.

Curses! :) By inaccuracies, you mean there were some clever red herrings along the way, or I just fouled up (which was bound to happen in here, as I went through a lot of stuff)?

"Both." Mostly the former. I only read through the lore-related stuff (I'm too busy to read the rest right now...kudos to you for having the time to do so), but there was surprisingly few actual errors, mostly just intentional misdirections. I won't say which is which, though, or what items they are. It's more fun for me that way! (We have to keep the mystery alive somehow. Why would we tell you the whole truth? We tell you things from the spoiler-free perspective of "Joe Citizen.")

Looking at this compilation of info (thank you for this incredible effort!!), it has me thinking I hope we get more of a breakdown on tertiaries soon. Specifically what tertiaries we might expect at launch. *crosses fingers and prays for energy blast tertiary*

Kudos to Pyromantic for an amazingly well-documented summary of the information related to CoT. In all seriousness this probably ought to become the foundation of a third-party player-maintained wiki page for this game.

Had a prototype, lost it in a drive crash. It's a licensed library, so easy to restore, but as it's not for launch, not a priority at this time. We know the core system works, which is all we'd wanted to verify with that Prototype.

—

Technical Director

Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider

I suppose it's possible this could be a foundation to evolve into a wiki sometime, and that in the meantime the idea was to serve as an unofficial guide to player-facing information. Just see how it goes I guess.

In terms of immediate next steps, there are still some topics I want to search for information on, and some sources I haven't used yet such as most of the Twitch streams (I only used the odd source there so far because I could remember pretty well what I was looking for and where to find it.) I recall hearing that streams roll off after 3 months unless they are archived though; do we know if those will remain available indefinitely? I'd prefer not to cite things that will be gone soon. And then of course there is anything new coming out this week, like the new power set launch list or if there's a KS update or Twitch stream. So I think I will go through another round of stuff and post Version 2 when ready.

This is a really nice compilation of information. Thank you Pyromatic.

Suggestion: add a blurb to the "Character Creation and Advancement - Mechanics" to explain that all characters are created without a binary definition of 'hero' or 'villain'. You create a super, not a hero/villain.
Suggestion: add section to the "Combat and other Gameplay Elements" to explain how characters con as adversaries (for the purposes of being able to attack them).

The 3-Axis Alignment System does not determine who is a friend or who is an enemy when it comes to PvP.

A "Super Team" (ST) is the equivalent of what we remember as a Super Group from CoX. Characters in the ST are not PvP active amongst themselves.
A "League" is an alliance between two or more Super Teams. Characters in the allied Super Teams are not PvP active amongst themselves.
A "group" is whatever random collection of characters you invite into the group. Characters in the group are not PvP active amongst themselves.
The moment a character leaves a group or ST they become PvP active. The moment a ST leaves a League they become PvP active (towards the remaining members of the League).

For the purposes of PvP:

Everyone in your League is a friend. Everyone else is an enemy.

Everyone in your Super Team is a friend. Everyone else not in your League or your ST is an enemy.

Everyone in your group is a friend. Everyone else not in your League or ST or group is an enemy.

This is a really nice compilation of information. Thank you Pyromatic.
Suggestion: add a blurb to the "Character Creation and Advancement - Mechanics" to explain that all characters are created without a binary definition of 'hero' or 'villain'. You create a super, not a hero/villain.
Suggestion: add section to the "Combat and other Gameplay Elements" to explain how characters con as adversaries (for the purposes of being able to attack them).
The 3-Axis Alignment System does not determine who is a friend or who is an enemy when it comes to PvP.
A "Super Team" (ST) is the equivalent of what we remember as a Super Group from CoX. Characters in the ST are not PvP active amongst themselves.
A "League" is an alliance between two or more Super Teams. Characters in the allied Super Teams are not PvP active amongst themselves.
A "group" is whatever random collection of characters you invite into the group. Characters in the group are not PvP active amongst themselves.
The moment a character leaves a group or ST they become PvP active. The moment a ST leaves a League they become PvP active (towards the remaining members of the League).
For the purposes of PvP:Everyone in your League is a friend. Everyone else is an enemy.
Everyone in your Super Team is a friend. Everyone else not in your League or your ST is an enemy.
Everyone in your group is a friend. Everyone else not in your League or ST or group is an enemy.

I think it should be phrases as could be an enemy rather than is an enemy.

The way is has been explained, there is no interpretive dance to be made.
The wording "For the purposes of PVP" takes care of the ambiguity where you can be standing there and have no feeling one way or the other while looking at another player. It is just the cold hard binary of "can I attack this character".

Thanks for the suggestions. Sorry it took me a while to post about them, but I needed a bit of time to look into them further.

TitansCity: The original document the Archetypes were taken from called the sets 'Defense,' which is why I called them that. The recent update on power sets did refer to them as 'Protection,' so it probably would have been a good idea for me to change them in the revision of this document. However the reposted class/spec chart that went up in the last few days still has them listed as 'Defense' so I'm unsure. I'm guessing 'Protection' is the more accurate term and will add that to the list of revisions for the next version unless I find out something else in the meantime.

Planet10: The suggestions are appreciated. Please try to include a direct link to the source if you can though, as everything in the document must be cited. I had wanted to include something about Super Teams as I knew I'd seen it somewhere but lost track of where. Fortunately your post had enough in it that a search led me to what I wanted, so I expect I'll include that also in the next revision. As for how that intersects with PvP, in the interest of brevity I might include a brief note with a link for those interested.

Planet10: The suggestions are appreciated. Please try to include a direct link to the source if you can though

It would be worth everyone's time to just read through the entire "How Should the PVP phase play" thread (as selectively quoted below) to understand how opposition is determined (essentially who is an enemy and who is a friend). There are a few sidetracks, but it gives a fair picture of how the game will function. Unfortunately, the pertinent information was squeezed out over the lifespan of the thread, so it doesn't exist in one or two posts. (it is summarized in the quote I provided originally)

How Should the PVP phase play... wrote:

post#40 This is where social dynamics come into play. Being part of a Super Team prevents general pvp (unless you use the dual function, or enter in an event and choose opposing sides). And having a Super Team form a League (Super Teams that enter an "alliance" with he other) prevents general PvP outside those functions.
If you want to enter into the pvp phase, and still continue to pve without risk of your group turning on you after it disbands, make yourself a Super Team (yes you can be a Super Team of 1) and make alliances, or join with others either in your own ST or into someone else's ST. Then, group up those players.

How Should the PVP phase play... wrote:

post#54 If you are in a team, you can't attack one another. If your are a Super Team or League you can't just attack one another.
The open world setting for pvp doen't pick and choose sides based on alignment. Eventually, I know we plan to include events or modes of pvp on instances maps where there will be opposing teams.

How Should the PVP phase play... wrote:

post#60 1. Super Team is the phrase we've been using for "super group". Leagues are a collection of allied Super Teams.

How Should the PVP phase play... wrote:

post#104 What typically happens in open world pvp where a group becomes dominant is that players tend to band together to oppose the dominant group. Since the dominant group in this system will have a bounty on them, they will be worth-while targets to take on.
Creating safe guards such as level brackets will prevent high levels wrecking low level areas, safe areas, and a ranked system all help to provide an environment within open-world where players can participate with similar players n pvp.

How the PVP phase should play... wrote:

post#123 With regards to hero vs villain ratio - as I'be stated, Hero and Villain are labels players use. They are descriptive - not prescriptive and do not drive game play. The alignment system is based on a tri-axis of Law, Honor, and Violence. You can have a lawful, honorable, violent hero or a lawful, honorable, violent villain.
Players do not read alignments of other players. It is up to you - the player to decide the reasoning for how and why your character behaves, and how and why other characters are behaving the way they do.
On the pve side of things, your actions will determine your alignment ratings - and over time, your reputation with various factions reveal which areas you are welcomed or not.
Hence, alignment does not factor much for driving pvp - the morivations are up to the player to interpret for themselves.

How the PVP phase should play... wrote:

post#132 As for how players will decide who can invite another ST into their ST or ST's League - that comes down to the players' who form the ST and the permissions they set as in Who can Invite to ST League and in League circumstances Who Can Accept.
The functional diffierence when it comes to Leagues is size. inviting a new ST into a League can have a large impact as in it could involve large numbers of player accounts (and characters per account).

I believe that is it CRITICAL that the playerbase understands that the player themselves determines who is an enemy and who is a friend (via Leagues, Super Teams, and random groups). There is no "hero" side to roll a character. There is no "villain" side to roll a character. There is just a super powered character that you create. It is your behavior and social interactions that determines who opposes you.

I believe that is it CRITICAL that the playerbase understands that the player themselves determines who is an enemy and who is a friend (via Leagues, Super Teams, and random groups). There is no "hero" side to roll a character. There is no "villain" side to roll a character. There is just a super powered character that you create. It is your behavior and social interactions that determines who opposes you.
(that is one thing that makes CoT different than most other MMORPGs)

Exactly, why I prefer to say a Player is not necessarily an enemy. If they aren't an Ally.

I expect to put up another update soon. I've kept notes on any new information I've found and have started editing the files already, so probably over the next week or so. Not that there will be anything earth-shattering to add, but a few bits and pieces here and there.

Glad that you've found it helpful Super M.
I expect to put up another update soon. I've kept notes on any new information I've found and have started editing the files already, so probably over the next week or so. Not that there will be anything earth-shattering to add, but a few bits and pieces here and there.

Since the guide is getting larger, do you have a way of indicating what up updated?

It won't get significantly larger. There isn't that much that will change, and it's not always additive. However, I'll continue using an update tag, removing old ones and putting new ones in as appropriate.

Had some time the last couple of days and finished work on version 3, which has now been posted. One of the things I did was to take another look at the PvP thread for discussion on alignment, and I agree that the description of "hero" and "villain" as concepts that may exist in the player's mind but don't actually exist as a factor in segregating players is important, so I've included that in the appropriate place. My thanks to Planet10 for directing my attention there.

I haven't been able to figure that out unfortunately. At one point in time, it seemed as though some of the links were working even to videos that aren't listed. However, I could easily be mistaken, and that doesn't appear to be true now. It would be a shame if they're gone but that might just be the way of it. It does mean that I may need to go through and delete some references or mark some of the information as from a source that is no longer available the next time I do an update.

I'm not quite sure why it is that the older videos are kept while the newest one rolls off first.

An Episode is a mission. A Series is a string of Episodes telling a connected story. A Saga is multiple, successive arcs with recurring plot elements.

Episode-Series-Saga == Mission - story/arc - universe/lore/history???

I don't know that they named a comparable to "Saga" in COX. I just skimmed over most of the information here. That jumped out at me.

It's a great resource. I hope you can keep up with it as I've had trouble maintaining my glossary. The dev list is in better shape, there just aren't a lot of new devs lately. Actually there was one in one of the biweekly updates but they haven't posted on the boards to my knowledge. Not that I've been on very often. The dev tracker is working now too so that takes the pressure off me staying up to date. /ramble

What about a mail system? Has anyone heard anything? I'm almost 100% sure it's common sense to have a trade button for person-to-person trading, but what if I want to mail a different character of mine something from another character? Will that be possible?

Mailing to other characters on the same account may not be an issue if they put in a shared storage system per each account. Also, what MMO doesn't have some type of mail system in place?

Secret World Legends has a very limited mail system. You can't send items, only messages. I think the reasoning from the devs is to prevent hoarding (storage is also limited) but I've never heard it directly.

Myri wrote:
Mailing to other characters on the same account may not be an issue if they put in a shared storage system per each account. Also, what MMO doesn't have some type of mail system in place?
As far as I can remember CoH didn't. Then again I missed the last 2 ish years of it's life so maybe it was created and I just didn't get to see it.

CoH always had a mail system. It started off as faction-only and text-only, but was expanded later on.

I think initially you could only send 10k inf or something. pretty useless unless you were send inf to a level 1 for TOs or something like that. As far as I can remember it was always there. Later it allowed you to attach a single item IIRC.

I suspect that there is a drop in mail client in the UE store that they can tweak pretty easily to handle a myriad of in game items including costumes currency and mods/augs/refs (tangent can we start calling these MARs? or ARMs?)

I think initially you could only send 10k inf or something. pretty useless unless you were send inf to a level 1 for TOs or something like that. As far as I can remember it was always there. Later it allowed you to attach a single item IIRC.
I suspect that there is a drop in mail client in the UE store that they can tweak pretty easily to handle a myriad of in game items including costumes currency and mods/augs/refs (tangent can we start calling these MARs? or ARMs?)

There are only Augments and Refinements.

—

I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic - Tech Team.

I have just posted an update to this document. Not a lot of changes, but a few new pieces of information have gone in. Of course, those of you who have been reading the forums regularly probably knew these already, as everything contained within has a pre-existing developer source. But I wanted to make sure that those of you checking in from time to time or new to the forum had the most up-to-date information possible.

The introduction was updated to this effect, but I want to highlight one point: everything contained herein should be considered unofficial at this time. As some of you may have noticed, since writing the original version of this guide I have joined the Missing Worlds Media team as a Community Manager. We have some ideas about how to evolve this guide into an official version, a prospect I'm personally very excited to take part in.

As some of you may have noticed, since writing the original version of this guide I have joined the Missing Worlds Media team as a Community Manager. We have some ideas about how to evolve this guide into an official version, a prospect I'm personally very excited to take part in.

So, as I'm sure has been noticed, the compilation hasn't been updated since January, and I haven't posted at all in a long time.

In part this was due to a busy work schedule for periods of time, but primarily it's because I've been dealing with a challenging medical problem throughout the year. While I anticipated staying involved with the PR team and keeping the compilation up to date, this unfortunately has not been possible for me due to the demands on my time and energy and the unpredictability of my condition on a day-to-day basis. I'm sorry I wasn't able to continue to contribute, but perhaps that will change in the future and there will be a place for me to volunteer within MWM again.

I'm still looking forward to the opportunity to play City of Titans as much as ever and hope to see everyone in the game before too long!